Odds & Ends

Dateline: Japan—The company behind the college dorm staple Cup Noodles has opened a museum dedicated entirely to the instant food. Nissin Foods dedicated the museum last month in the city of Yokohama. The museum includes a history of the product, which was created by company founder Momofuku Ando in 1958, as well as a theater featuring films about Cup Noodle. There is also mock “factory” allowing visitors to design their own ramen noodle recipes. Ando passed away in 2007 at the age of 96. The founder’s son, Koki, said the museum is a way for the company to honor his father, as well as look forward to the future of the product. “I think we’ve only explored 40 percent of Cup Noodle’s potential,” he told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “At the moment, we’re looking into noodles that can be reconstituted with cold water.”

Dateline: England—A documentary that aired on Britain's ITV channel late last month was intended to show a link between Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and the Irish Republican Army. Instead, it became a commercial for a two-year-old video game. Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA claims the now-deposed president of Libya supplied the IRA with enough weapons to turn a militia into an army. To bolster the claims, the film shows footage allegedly captured by the IRA in 1988 in which IRA militants use Gadhafi-supplied machine guns to shoot down a helicopter. Unfortunately, the footage isn't from the IRA. It's from a 2009 video game called ArmA 2. The tactical shooter was designed for the PC by Bohemia Interactive. Fans of the game noticed the footage almost immediately and started posting comments on the video game company's online message boards. Shortly after the gaff was discovered, ITV issued a statement saying that producers of the documentary do have real footage of IRA agents shooting down a helicopter, but the “other footage” was mistakenly used. “This was an unfortunate case of human error for which we apologize,” said an ITV spokesperson.

Dateline: Pennsylvania—A young couple tried to pay for their wedding by stealing copper wire from more than a dozen utility poles in rural western Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, they got caught. And only made $18. Police in North Sewickley Township say 23-year-old Joseph Russel and his bride-to-be, 24-year-old April Carter, cut down the wires on Aug. 9, four days before their wedding. Russell said he was desperate for money after he lost his job. He also allegedly lost a $1,000 deposit after the reception hall where the wedding was to take place shut its doors. Sgt. Jeff Bezce told reporters the couple clearly expected to get more than they did for the scrap metal. Utility officials said it would cost about $400 to fix each of the damaged poles. The unhappy couple have been charged with theft, criminal conspiracy and criminal mischief.

Dateline: Florida—A motorist was arrested for drunk driving after trying to renew his vehicle registration at a county office. Edward Melyon McNeil, 43, and his girlfriend were approached by a deputy at the Brandon county tax office when the woman allegedly harassed an office worker. According to the St. Petersburg Times, office manager Durelle Ray said the woman began shouting “Gimme your shirt! I need your shirt!” The deputy, sensing the two were a bit tipsy, suggested they not drive home. McNeil reportedly told the officer he'd take his chances. “You could see that they were ripped,” Ray said. True to his word, McNeil took his chances and was pulled over almost immediately by another deputy. A blood alcohol test was administered and it was determined that McNeil was legally impaired. McNeil denied that he and his girlfriend were being disorderly inside the tax office.

Dateline: Arizona—The new border fence is already having a profound effect on drug trafficking—it's forcing drug dealers to slightly repackage their products. According to the Nogales International, law enforcement officers in Arizona noticed that some recently seized bundles of marijuana were oddly shaped. Lt. Gerry Castillo of the Santa Cruz County Metro Task Force said investigators first thought 48 pounds’ worth of thinly packed drugs had been smuggled through a tunnel. But the packages weren't dirty. Eventually, investigators figured out that the thin, tubular shapes were designed to be passed between the bars of the newly constructed border fence. Sections of the $11.6 million fence between Mexico and Arizona are made from concrete-filled steel tubes with a 4-inch gap between each rung of the fence. Instead of tunneling under the fence, drug smugglers can now pass packages through it.